


Scarlet fever

by Yuulina_vre



Series: Little Supersoldiers [54]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Coughing, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fever, Hospitalization, Kid Bucky Barnes, Kid Fic, M/M, Men Crying, Pneumonia, Sick Character, Sickfic, Sleepiness, Worried Steve Rogers, scarlet fever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:22:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25897378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuulina_vre/pseuds/Yuulina_vre
Summary: Little Bucky gest sick and Steve is super worried. It get's worse as the antibiotics for Bucky don't help.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Reader
Series: Little Supersoldiers [54]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1140365
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	Scarlet fever

Steve eyes Bucky warily as he sits on the carpet and plays with his favorite car. He’s sluggish and looks so tired that Steve fears he just keels over, faceplants and falls asleep. Steve has asked him several times if he’s okay or said that he looks a little sick, but Bucky being Bucky denied it. Each time the little boy nods, avoids eye contact and finds a spot somewhere on the carpet that seems suddenly pretty interesting. Steve worries a little. Bucky really is pale and if he looks closely, it seems like the little boy is sweating a little, despite the mild temperature in the playroom. He didn’t even eat his breakfast, only shoved it around the plate that morning. He wishes Y/N were home. She would know exactly what’s wrong with him. Y/N always seems to know, only by the fact how they got up that day or how they sneeze. But she’s currently away with Pepper, doing some interview for new employees. She told him to call if something happens, but otherwise not to disturb her. And for the last half an hour he really thought about doing it. Clearly, something is up with Buck and he won’t tell him, but he’s also not sure if that’s enough to disturb Y/N at work. At least Lady is home with him, sitting with him on the soft mattress in the playroom, and eyes Bucky just as closely as he does, as if she scents that something is wrong with the little brunette.

Bucky keeps on playing, though, all unbothered and ignoring Steve’s stares, if he even notices them. That he’s not making any sounds while playing is suspicious to Steve. Usually, playtime is filled with noises of engines and sirens, car crashes and collapsing buildings. Today he’s silent. The radio play Bucky had listened to for the last couple of days, and that Steve had turned on for him, seems to be ignored or not even acknowledged. Bucky just stares at the cars as he shoves them halfheartedly over the floor, trying to hold up the façade of playing. He looks even more tired with each passing ten minutes that go by.

It only takes four more minutes until Bucky finally gives up, seemingly getting fed up with shoving his cars up and down, and crawls into the fort Steve sits in. They had built it the night prior and Bucky had insisted on sleeping in it. “Hey, champ. You tired?” The boy nods, so Steve opens his arms and lets him crawl into them and on his lap, then Steve grabs one of the soft blankets that lie around him, wraps Bucky in it and envelopes him in his arms as well. “Let’s take a nap, hm?” He smiles kindly at the boy and leans down to press a kiss to the brunette mop of hair that’s all tangled up again. “Okay.” Bucky cuddles even closer, so Steve notes that the boy’s voice sounds hoarse, but he ignores it in favor of lying down, head on Lady’s soft fur, with not too much pressure on the dog, and Bucky on top of him. He also notices that Bucky is actually sweating, his temperature seems to be higher than usual, but Steve isn’t that sure about that with his own higher temperature. Steve kisses Bucky’s head again, feeling Bucky’s soft, hot breathes on the skin of his collarbone where his top doesn’t cover his skin. He’s content to just stay there and cuddle with the boy for a while. It takes only a few minutes for Bucky to fall asleep. Steve presses his lips to Bucky’s forehead, closing his eyes to better concentrated on the heat that he feels. He sighs as he can’t really decide how high that fever actually seems to be. He lets his hand, that’s not resting on Bucky’s back, run through Bucky’s knotted hair, kisses his head now and then again or hums some lullabies Y/N uses to sing to them. While he listens to Bucky’s soft breathing, feels the rise of his chest on his own and sometimes listen closer to the radio play that started all over again, he thinks and hopes that Bucky’s not getting seriously sick. Hopes that it’s just a mild cold, with all the chilly evenings and meeting kids in the park, it’s a possibility. He has no clue where that thought comes from. He’s never been the one to think of dreadful diseases. He had plenty of that himself, so he stopped thinking about them, Bucky’s usually the one to worry. It seems he got infected with it.

Somehow, Steve must have dozed off while thinking. When he opens his eyes again, it’s brighter outside. Lady is gone, and Steve is surprised that he hasn’t noticed her slip away from under him. His head certainly must have hit the ground. She’s never really sneaky with slipping away, at least never when he and Bucky are big. He rubs his eyes tiredly and looks down at the brunette mop of hair. Bucky stirs slowly, so Steve runs his hands softly over his back and waits for Bucky to look up. “Hey, Buck. Did you have a nice dream?” Bucky shakes his head and hides in Steve’s chest. The blonde clearly notice that Bucky’s face looks just as tried and pale as before, so sleep didn’t help with what he had come down with. “No? Did you dream something at all?” Another headshake. “Hm. But you slept well?” This time Bucky shrugs and buries his face deeper into Steve’s chest. “Throat hurts.” His voice is muffled through the fabric of Steve’s top, but Steve can hear the slight scratch in it and the hoarsens from before. “Then let us drink something, maybe that helps. Okay?” Bucky nods and slowly shuffles off of Steve and out of the fort. Steve crawls after him and takes his hand. “Let’s see where Lady is and get something to drink.” He smiles at Bucky, but the boy just looks down at his feet, following Steve around and clutching his hand.

Twenty minutes later, Bucky doesn’t feel better, so Steve allows him to eat a small cup of ice cream. It doesn’t seem to help, and Bucky doesn’t even finish it, claiming he’s not hungry and rather cuddle a little more and watch TV. Steve frowns at him the whole time. Bucky is never one to abandon ice cream, no matter how small the portion is. He still worries but stays stubborn enough to not call Y/N and freak out just yet. It’s just a scratching throat and a small fever after all. He can handle that. Really. He’s fine. Probably. Hopefully.

Around lunch time Bucky still isn’t hungry. Steve is now more concerned than hours ago. Bucky had cuddled him all the time and if not him, then Lady. He had stayed on the couch the whole time, not complained about being bored like usual or talked about the cartoons on the TV like he uses to. Steve feels a little defeated and sits down at Bucky’s feet. The boy immediately sits up and crawls into Steve’s lap and wraps his arms around the blonde’s neck. Steve picks him up short handedly and the boy instantly hides his face in Steve’s neck and the blonde notes immediately that he is hotter than before. He doesn’t need to get the thermometer to know that he’s sporting a higher, real fever. “Okay. I’ll think we call mommy now. Sounds good?” Bucky doesn’t react, but Steve hasn’t expected him to. He grabs his phone from the coffee table, dials Y/N’s number and waits. _“Hello, Steve?”_

“Y/N, doll. Hi. Sorry to disturb you. I know you said only to call if something important happens, but-”

 _“Hey, take a breath. What’s wrong?”_ Steve takes deep breath, feeling a slight blush creep on his face from his word vomit a second earlier and sighs before sitting down on the couch and running a hand over Lady’s head, trapping the phone between ear and shoulder and running the other hand over Bucky’s back. “Bucky says his throat hurts. He has a fever now and isn’t hungry, almost hasn’t eaten anything the whole day. He even denied ice cream, Y/N. Ice cream!”

 _“Oh.”_ He hears a little amused chuckle from her, but her voice still sounds a little concerned. _“Did you give him something for the fever or the throat?”_

“N-no. Not yet.” Silently, Steve curses himself. He should have figured that out of his own. Y/N always does that. _“I think we have some fever reducers in the cabinet in the kids’ bathroom. And in mine should be some cough drops. They help with hurting throats, too.”_

“Can’t you come home?” That just slips out and Steve cringes instantly at how pathetic and whiny his voice sounds. He knows he could do fever reducers and cough drops on his own, but he is calmer when Y/N is around to take care of Bucky and guide him through his tasks, so he doesn’t mess up. She’s just better as him and always seems to know what to do. _“I- Okay, listen. You give him the fever reducers and cough drop; see how he feels afterwards. If he’s not better by an hour you call me again. I’ll talk to Pepper then and text you.”_

“Okay.” Steve nods and looks at Bucky. “Do you want to talk to mommy?” Bucky nods pathetically and since Steve doesn’t trust him with holding the phone right now, he puts Y/N on speaker. “Okay, sweetie. Say hi to mommy.”

“Mommy?”

 _“Hey, sweetie. Daddy says you’re feeling icky?”_ Bucky hums at that and hides his face in Steve’s shoulder before he turns back to the phone. “You coming home, mommy?”

 _“Yeah, sweetie. Daddy’s just giving you some medicine and we see how you feel. If you’re not better daddy calls me again and I’m coming home.”_ Steve can hear how Y/N’s voice gets a little more desperate on going home than just seconds ago. He can assume that it must be Bucky’s scratchy voice that sends that reflex off. _“Can you kiss daddy for me and take the medicine? I know you’re a big boy and can take it even if it tastes yucky. When I’m home, we get in bed and all cozy and I read some stories to you. Okay?”_

“Okay.”

 _“Good, sweetie. I love you and see you soon.”_ Steve can hear her pained smile and quickly turns the speaker off. He exchanges a few words with Y/N until she needs to hang up. He stays put for a second, keeping his hand on Bucky’s back and running it up and down in soothing strokes. Then he actually gets up, Bucky still on his arms and shuffles into the kids’ bathroom and Y/N’s to gather the things he needs only to wander back to the couch and lie Bucky down. He whines a bit at the loss of Steve’s warmth and he can see how Bucky slightly shivers. “I know, Buck. But we need to take the medicine and then we can go back to cuddling again, yeah?” Bucky only whines again but manages the tiniest nod ever. Steve tries to make a quick work of drugging him up and goes back to cuddling instantly, praising Bucky all through it. His phone on the table pings and Steve sees a small pop up. Y/N will be home in twenty. Thank god.

* * *

When Y/N gets home, she greets Lady shortly as the dog greets her with a waggling tail. She doesn’t seem to mind, takes her few pats and strolls after Y/N as she walks to the living room and crouches down in front of the couch. Steve smiles at her, seemingly defeated despite not having done anything. “How is he?” Bucky is fast asleep, red cheeks and all. The medicine has knocked him out completely. “He still has the fever, still said his throat hurt before he fell asleep.” Steve shrugs and Y/N nods. She places her own hand on his forehead and frowns a little at the heat. “Did you take his temperature?”

“I- eh… no.” Steve looks a little ashamed, but Y/N smiles at him. “That’s okay. You probably wouldn’t have found the thermometer anyway. I’ll just grab it and his pajama. Be right back.” She kisses Steve’s cheek and vanishes into her room. She quickly strips out of her blouse and pants into something comfier before she walks into the kid’s room. She grabs Bucky’s pajama, that lies on his bed, and takes the thermometer out of the cabinet under the sink in the bathroom, then goes back to the boys. The thermometer reads 101 degrees. Not too high, but Y/N likes it lower. She then takes Bucky from Steve and the man gratefully stands up from the couch, stretches and gives her a proper kiss. “How come that you got home so soon?”

“Pepper heard me talking on the phone and when I explained what’s up she send me home.” Y/N shrugs and runs her hand through Bucky’s hair. Steve looks a few seconds and nods. “I’ll prepare some light dinner and soup, okay?”

“Yeah. Just don’t burn the kitchen down.” She chuckles as Steve throws her a dirty look. “There should be soup in the freezer, from your cold last month.”

“Okay.” She smiles again, watches as Steve leaves and lies Bucky on the couch to change him. The boy stirs instantly. “Mommy?”

“Hey, baby. How are you feeling?”

“Head hurts. Throat.”

“Yeah? Still pretty bad?” She watches as Bucky nods and sighs. Poor boy. “How about we change you into something comfier? Maybe you feel better than.” Again, the boy nods and Y/N makes quick work of stripping him only to stop and frown. “What do you have here, sweetie? Did you hurt yourself?”

“No. itchy.”

“Itchy?” Y/N eyes the red spots on Bucky’s arms a little warily. “Can you open your mouth for me, Bucky? Show me your tongue?” The boy looks tiredly at her, a little confused and uncomfortable, but he opens his mouth and shows Y/N his tongue. Y/N only hums at him and smiles. “Okay, thank you, sweetie. Now we get you all cozy.” Bucky looks still confused, but Y/N coos at him, pulls the shirt over his head and helps him to slip his arms in it, before she pulls his pants up. “Cuddles now?”

“Of course, come here.” Y/N opens her arms and lets Bucky crawl into them. She wraps her arms tightly around the small bundle and kisses his head. The moment she settles on the couch, Steve returns with some water for Bucky. Lady is close behind, jumping on the free spot beside Y/N and lies her head against Bucky’s thigh. “Hey, doll.” The blonde kisses her head, settles down beside her and wraps his own arms around her and Bucky after putting the glass down. “Hey.” She smiles at Steve and leans in a bit, settling her head on his shoulder. “We need to go to Helen, get some antibiotics.”

“What? Why?” She feels Steve tense beside her. Bucky snuggles deeper into her at the mention of Helen’s name and Y/N rolls her eyes in her mind. “It seems Buck caught scarlet fever.” She looks at Steve’s face. The blonde seems to be a little paler and eyes Bucky closely. “Steve. It’s okay. Scarlet fever is treatable and rarely ends badly these days.”

“But it can happen.”

“Yeah it can. But Buck is strong. He gets through it, okay? Don’t worry.” She sees that Steve’s not convinced. “Come here you big baby.” She lifts one arm from Bucky and pulls Steve into the hug. Steve snorts lightly but lets her pull him in. She kisses his temple and runs her hand up and down his arm. “It will be alright.” She kisses him again, then Bucky and then Steve again. “Now, how about you go down and talk to Helen, get the antibiotics, and let her ease your mind, hm?” She looks at Steve and extracts his arm from around him to massage his neck until Steve sighs, nods and gets up. She can still see the worry lines on his face. “Steve.” She waves him down again. He leans in and Y/N presses a lingering kiss on his lips. “It will be alright.” She watches Steve nod again and then leave. He comes back half an hour later, seemingly calmer but Y/N knows better. That will be a long week.

* * *

Steve’s concern grows and Y/N can practically see it. Bucky isn’t getting better. He’s still weak in his bones, not able to really get out of bed and not up to do something. His fever just rises no matter what they do and now he got some pretty dry sounding coughs. Y/N has to admit that she’s a little concerned as well and she decides that it’s probably time to let Helen look at the little brunette. She walks from the kitchen into the kids’ room, finding Bucky in bed cuddled up to Steve’s chest while he reads a story to the boy. “Hey you two.” She smiles and walks over to them Kissing Steve and then Bucky before slowly extracting the boy from his daddy and picking him up. She passes him his teddy’s and waits for Steve to get up. “What are you doing?” Steve sits up, closes the book and looks at her. “I through we go down, see Helen. I’ll have to admit that I’m a little concerned now that the fever doesn’t go down.” She frowns at Bucky who hangs limply in her arms, eyes closed. Steve frowns to but says nothing. “I’ll ask Tony to look after Lady.”

“No, don’t bother him. Pepper told me he was working in his lab for the last three days and finally is asleep. Just let her stay here. She will survive an hour or so.” Steve doesn’t look comfortable with that, but Bucky whines and buries his head deeper in Y/N’s neck, so he doesn’t argue and only nods.

As soon as Helen sees them, she ushers them into a room and says Y/N should lay Bucky down. She quickly listens to his chest as he starts coughing again. “Helen?” Steve shuffles anxiously form foot to foot and Y/N grips his hand hoping that it calms him, and her, a little. “He seems to have developed a case of pneumonia.”

“What? But he got antibiotics.” Steve frowns and looks between Y/N and Bucky. “Stevie. Sit down. Come on.” Somehow Y/N has the feeling his legs will give out under him. She doesn’t want to risk it though. She has to admit that she never saw him this concerned over a sick bucky. Actually, she never saw him this anxious at all. “Steve, what wrong?” She kneels down in front of him and captures his face between her hands. “I had this feeling, Y/N. I had a feeling that somethings wrong, but Bucky said he’s fine and I just dropped it, despite noticing that he wasn’t fine. I should have called you sooner, should have gone down here immediately.”

“Steve, Steve. Hey. It’s alright, that not your fault. Its fine. He’ll get through this and we take care of him, okay? It will be alright.” She leans in and kisses his forehead, rubbing his arms up and down. He’s paler than just minutes ago and his eyes are watery. So, she pulls him into a hug and rubs his back, kissing his shoulder and cheek. “This is bad. I can’t lose him, I can’t.”

“Stevie.” She intensifies her rubbing as Steve silently starts crying. “it’s not the first time either of you had pneumonia. It will be alright; we won’t lose him. Medicine is better now and even if the antibiotics didn’t really help, Helen’s here now.” She waits a little until Helen taps her shoulder. She looks at her nods and slowly let’s go of Steve. “Go and lie down with him, okay?” She watches as Steve wipes his eyes, takes a shaky breath and nods. She smiles kindly at him, runs her thumb a last time over his cheek, then she stands up and follows Helen out of the room. “What’s wrong?” Helen turns to her and motions to the seats across the door. “His cough is pretty dry, his fever high, he’s shivering violently but in fits not the whole time. And I can imagine that he’s not pretty hungry or thirsty right?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll let him stay here for the next few days then, give him some more antibiotics and an IV. He should be good in a few days, though the cough will probably stay a few weeks. I’m still confused as to why it got so bad. He got the right antibiotics.”

“Could the serum have something to do with it.”

“I don’t think so. Well, I mean sometimes antibiotics don’t work right and I suppose that’s what happened. We should watch out for that in the future. If something like this occurs again get him down here, so I can look him over.” Y/N nods and looks to the door. She thanks Helen for her help, quickly texts Bruce to ask him if he could look after Lady since they are in medical and then walks back into the room. She finds Steve sitting on the bed, Bucky on his chest. The blonde whispers into Bucky’s ear while he runs his hand through the knotted hair. Y/N grins at it, snaps a picture and then walks over to them. She leans in to kisses Steve’s cheek and rests her head against his to look at Bucky for a moment. “Helen says he’s going to stay here for a few days. She gets him new antibiotics and an IV, but he should be fine. Steve only nods numbly, not looking up from the sleeping brunette on him. Y/N sighs and shakes her head, motions for him to make some room before she climbs in beside him, wrapping bot boys up in her arms.

* * *

“Daddy, not this one. That one!” Bucky point at the shelf with the books and directs Steve to the book he wants to read. Y/N observes the boys closely and giggling. It’s the first day Bucky’s home again after his week in medical. Steve is hovering helplessly but bucky doesn’t really mind. He uses that against Steve and shoos him around the house, getting what he wants, and Steve complies easily. She snaps many pictures of the situation; glad she can tease Steve with it later on. The blonde pulls the book out of the shelf and walks back to Bucky. “This one?” he holds the book up and Bucky nods. “Good. Make room for me.” H emotions for Bucky to scoot over but Bucky shake his head. “No. I’m comfy.”

“Oh, and where should I sit to read?” Steve raises his eyebrows with played confusion and crackles into a laugh as Bucky points to the floor next to the couch with a look that’s says ‘there, duh?’. Y/N watches the both snicker at each other until she rolls her eyes. She plucks the book out of Steve’s hands and walks away into the kids’ room, ignoring the shouts and complains from both. She throws the book carefully into the blanket fort that’s still sitting in the room and walks back out. “get in your fort you two. You can snuggle and all.”

“It’s still there?” Bucky sits up with a wide grin before he breaks into a coughing fit. Usually Y/N cleans up after a few days if the boys won’t but this time she didn’t. “Yeah.” She smiles at Bucky coughs once more and then dashes away into the kids’ room. Steve looks after him before he turns to Y/N. “Steve, you need to calm down. Don’t coddle him, he gets used to it.”

“I know, bu-”

“Don’t ‘but’ me.” She smiles and slaps his shoulder before she takes his hand in hers, pulls him close and wraps his arms around her waist. Then she wraps hers around his neck. “He’s fine.”

“I know.” Steve grins lightly and leans his forehead against hers before he angles his head differently to kiss her. Y/N smiles into the kiss and practically feels Steve relax. She breaks the kiss after a long moment and leans back a little. “Now go and read your son this story.”

“But you can read much better.” Steve whines and tries his puppy dog eyes but Y/N shakes her head. “Nope. You said you would do it.” She grins at him, claps her hand on his chest and kisses his cheek. “I’ll get you some snacks and go out with Lady.” She kisses him again than gets out of his embrace and pushes him out of the living room. While she walks into the kitchen, she grins to herself.


End file.
